Melting An Ice Queen
by Mystoriesaremybabies
Summary: Naruto, Sasuke, Neji and Shikamaru are the new guys at Konoha High. When they meet the mysterious Hinata, Sakura, Tenten and Ino, they are immediately curious about the four beauties and make it their mission to figure them out. Will sparks fly or will too many secrets get in the way?
1. Ice Queens?

I don't own Naruto or any of its charaters. I'm English but I'm assuming the majority of people on here are Amerian so message me if you get confused.

Hi, this is just the timetables for the main characters. They don't have every lesson together but they do have the lessons at the same time.

Timetables

Monday: Art, Break, Maths, Dinner, PE, D & T

Tuesday: English, Break, Science, Dinner, Self Studies, Music

Wednesday: D & T, Break, English, Dinner, Maths, Art

Thursday: Science, Break, Art, Dinner, Self Studies, PE

Friday: Music, Break, Self Studies, Dinner, Maths, English

That's about it...Onward with the story!

Melting an Ice Queen's Heart

"Man!" Naruto exclaimed. "This school is HUGE!"

"Shut up you dope. People are starting to stare." Sasuke informed him as they made their way to the headmaster's office.

"So what? It was bound to happen anyway. We get stared at everywhere we go." Naruto reminded him.

"For once, the idiot has a point." Neji agreed.

"Why oh why, do we have to be so darn handsome?" Naruto asked noone in particular.

"Why oh why do you always have to be such a drag?" Shikamaru retorted before reverting his attention back to the clouds that were barely visible out of the window.

Naruto was about to reply but Sasuke announced that they were at their destination before he could. When they walked in, they saw a pretty, blonde woman sat behind a desk with a sign that read 'Headmistress Tsunade'.

"Hello" She greeted them. "You must be the new students. I'm your headmistress, Tsunade, and here are your timetables. I suggest memerising them."

She put them in front of the boys and they each picked up the one that had their names on it. After they had studied the papers for a few minutes, Tsunade broke the silence.

"Well, I better let you four be off. I trust that you'll fit in and adapt to Konoha High fairly easily. Good luck boys." With that, the four were dismissed. They walked back out into the school halls to find that they were now filled with people.

"Hey!" One girl shouted as she made her way towards the boys. "You guys are new, aren't you?"

"Yeah" Naruto replied.

"I'm Karin. Me and my friends can show you around if you want?" The girl who called herself Karin asked.

Naruto glanced at his friends. Shikamaru shrugged while Neji and Sasuke glared but none of them objected so Naruto took that as a yes.

"Umm...thanks. That would be great." He eventually and albeit hesitantly agreed to. Something told him that these girls would turn out to be lovesick puppies and that wasn't something he was looking forward to.

Karin and her friends took that as a sign to attach themselves to the boys. They were beginning to lead them to their first class when the doors flew open.

Silence filled the room as four incredibly beautiful girls walked in. On the end of the line, was a tall blonde girl. Her long hair was tied up into a pony tail and she was wearing white skinny jeans and a denim crop top with a white tank top underneath. She wore red peep toe heels.

The one next to her had bubblegum pink hair that was falling over her shoulder in a long fishtail. She was wearing a coral printed sequin mini skirt and a baggy, and slightly see through pink shirt that had three quarter sleeves and was tied at the front. She was wearing tanned peep toe platforms.

The one next to her had her chocolate brown hair in a loose side pony and a snap back on top of her head. She was wearing denim skinny jeans and a baggy crop top with a leather jacket over the top. She wore black high heeled sneakers.

The one at the end of the line had let her dark blue hair fall loosely down her back. She wore a light blue skater skirt with a strapless white top and a denim jacket over the top. She was wearing frilly socks and tanned high heeled lace up boots.

All of them were wearing identical cuff bracelets that wrapped the whole way around their wrists. The bracelets had weird symbols and letters on them.

They all seemed to move in unison. Like they had practised this entrance their entire lives. Eyes followed them everywhere but none of the girls seemed to notice and if they did, they didn't show it.

"Who are _they_?" Naruto asked one of Karin's friends.

"They're _the _Ice Queens of Konoha High." She replied with obvious distaste.

"Ice queens?" Sasuke questioned, joining the conversation.

"Yeah, they hardly ever show any emotions and if they do, it's always of the negative kind. They never talk to anyone voluntarily, apart from the teachers and even then the conversations are always short and snappy." Another one of Karin's friends added.

"Oh...why?" Naruto asked the same friend.

"Noone knows for sure, but rumour has it that they're this way because of some tragedy that involved them losing their parents. Apparently, they've all been orphans since birth."

"That's so sad." Naruto concluded.

"Yeah, well we don't know anything for sure because they all transfered here last year and wont tell any of us about themselves but that's what people say." Karin said. "I used to feel sorry for them but they're all complete bitches who don't deserve sympathy."

"Maybe they just haven't gotten over it yet?" Naruto tried to reason.

"I get that they might still be grieving but, taking it out on everyone around them? I just don't think that's right." Karin defended.

"Maybe" Naruto muttered before another thought hit him. "You said that they transfered here last year? Where did they go before?" He asked.

"Well...someone told me that they were all home schooled but like I've said, noone knows anything for sure. They didn't seem fazed by the sight of the school when they first arrived, and they're all really smart so who knows."

"Who's the blonde one?" Shikamaru asked.

"The blonde one is Ino, the one next to her is Sakura, then Tenten and then Hinata. They were all born on the same day and they all apparently live together in this huge masion out in the woods. Someone followed them home one day, but the girls caught him and threatened him within an inch of his life if he or anyone else ever came back to their 'territory' as they called it." The one hanging on Shikamaru told them.

"Really?" He asked, suprised.

"Yeah" The same girl answered. "Some of them may not look it, especially the one called Hinata, but they could kick _anyone's_ ass to Timbukto and back and not even break a sweat."

"Somehow I find that hard to believe." Neji spoke for the first time in a while.

"Well...class is about to start so come on." Karin stated before pulling on Sasuke's arm. The other girls followed suit and began to drag them towards the boy's first class that they all had together. None of the boys were thrilled with being pulled around but they didn't complain because they had thankfully found out that Karin and her 'possie' weren't sharing this class with them.

As soon as they stepped into the classroom, the teacher greeted them.

"Hello, I'm Kurenai, you four must be my new students. Please take your seats. Class is about to start." She informed them just as the bell rang.

They all looked around for somewhere to sit. There were eight seats left. Four at the very back, and four in front of them. The boys took the ones at the back. Eventhough the bell had rang, Kurenai seemed to be waiting for something. Lot's of people took advantage of this to talk.

"They're _always _late!" Someone complained.

"Yeah, and Kurenai never tells them off like she would if one of us were late." Another one added.

"It's not fair! They all get special treatment." The same voice as before complained again.

Before said voice could go into a full blown rant, the classroom doors flew open and in walked the four mysterious and stunninly attractive girls.

"Nice of you girls to join us. Late as usual." Kurenai added.

Sakura, Ino and Tenten all walked past her without a second glance but Hinata slipped something onto her desk before following the three other girls to their seats.

Kurenai looked at the note while the boys couldn't help but stare at the four wonders sitting in front of them.

_Apologies Kurenai, there was something that we had to do. We'll make it up to you somehow. – I, H, S, T_

After Kurenai had finished reading the short note, she glanced up at the girls. All of them were constantly wearing that same mask of indifference. Noone apart from her had ever seen them take off that mask. Inside, each girl was kind, generous and warm hearted. She felt for them, knowing what they had and were going through, but she didn't know why they made themselves this way.

Ice queens. They never, in a million years, would be true ice queens. They may look and act like ice queens, but inside they would always be those radiant girls that she used to know and love.

"Umm...Kurenai?" One student asked.

The voice broke Kurenai out of her thoughts. She glanced at the clock and realised that she had been silent for almost five minutes.

"Right, this term we're doing a pair project. Each pair must present two contrasting themes and explain why they have choosen them in particular. Remember, this is art, so it has to be presented in a creative way." She paused for a second.

"You have three weeks to come up with something, so get to work." She said and hesitated before announcing the last thing. "You will be working with a member of the opposite gender and I will be choosing your pairs." She winced as she waited for a reaction from the girls.

There was none.

Silence.

Complete and utter silence.

And then, the class erupted.

"I wonder who's going to have to work with those four." A girl across from them said.

"Yeah, I don't know whether to be scared or excited." The boy next to her announced.

Kurenai read out the names of who was paired with who, and then paused as she looked at the last eight names.

"Sakura with Sasuke, Hinata with Naruto, Ino with Shikamaru and Tenten with Neji."

Everyone's attention was diverted, so the girls took this as an opportunity to glare at Kurenai. They did this for the rest of the lesson and when the bell rang, they didn't move from their seats.

Once everyone had left the room to go to break, Kurenai shut the door and turned to face the girls. It was silent for about a minute before Kurenai decided to speak.

"Look, I'm sorry but it had to be done." She began. When she didn't get any reaction from the girls, she continued in a desperate voice. "You girls _need_ some friends."

"We don't need nor want anything." Hinata replied in a stone cold voice.

"We're fine as we are." Tenten added in the same tone.

"Seriously? I beg to differ! You four are practically the walking dead. Do you really think that your parents or Granny Chiyo would have wanted that?" Kurenai retorted.

She knew she had struck a nerve. Each girl's face contorted with pain at the mention of Granny Chiyo and their parents. For a few seconds, they were speechless but they quickly recovered.

"I don't know. Why don't we just ask them?" Sakura suggested. "Oh wait, we can't because they're all DEAD!" She screamed.

"You don't think I don't know that? Are you forgetting that I knew ALL of your parents? They were like family to me. Are you forgetting that Granny Chiyo was the _only_ family thatI had? My mum and dad died that day aswell you know." She reminded them.

"That's exactly our point. They were killed because of us. Because they knew what we would grow up to become. How can we be happy about something like that?" Ino cried.

"I know better than anyone what you're going through. I know that you blame yourselves but you shouldn't. You should be proud of who you are." Kurenai said calmly.

"Proud? Proud! You really think we should be proud? We could explode at any minute. Wipe out this whole school in the blink of an eye. You think we should be proud of something like that?" Tenten asked.

"I know you girls better than that. You couldn't hurt the innocent even if you wanted to. I know deep down you're still the same warm hearted girls that I grew to love." Kurenai said softly.

Each girl quietened at the saddness in Kurenai's voice. She truly missed them, they could tell. They wanted to open up. It's just, something was stopping them.

"You're right, we could never intentionally hurt an innocent. But there's always the chance of an accident. One of us could get really angry and lose control. You don't realise how much we want to make friends, laugh at stupid things, just basically be normal. We just can't." All girls were on the verge of tears now.

"You can, you just need a push in the right direction. That's exactly what this project is. I paired you up with the new kids for a reason, it's a fresh start. Please try to make friends, for me?" Kurenai begged.

Noone knew how much the girls wanted to agree to what Kurenai had asked of them. They just physically couldn't. They couldn't have friends. They couldn't drag anyone else into their twisted life.

"Sorry Kurenai." Sakura apologised as they made their way towards the door.

"So that's it? You're just going to walk out there and act like none of this ever happened? You're going to put that mask up again? Hide your emotions from the world?" She said.

All girls paused at the door for a second. In that second, they thought about what life would be like without their powers. Without this unknown enemy that wanted them died.

And then they walked out without looking back.

As the bell rang, Naruto, Sasuke, Neji and Shikamaru made their way out of the classroom. They knew that the four girls hadn't moved yet and assumed that they wanted a word with Kurenai about the project pairings.

The boys were actually excited about this project. Sure, they were paired with the ice queens, but at least they might find out something interesting about them. They were all thinking similar thoughts and were quite content when Naruto suddenly announced that he had left his pen in Kurenai's class.

"You always surprise me with your stupidity." Sasuke complained but nevertheless, all four turned around and headed back to Kurenai's classroom.

As they approached the door, they heard voices shouting inside.

"_I don't know. Why don't we just ask them?" Sakura suggested. "Oh wait, we can't because they're all DEAD!" She screamed._

All of the boys looked at each other. They all put their finger to their lips as a sign to be quiet and continued to listen to the conversation going on inside the classroom.

"_You don't think I don't know that? Are you forgetting that I knew ALL of your parents? They were like family to me. Are you forgetting that Granny Chiyo was the only family that I had? My mum and dad died that day aswell you know." She reminded them._

"_That's exactly our point. They were killed because of us. Because they knew what we would grow up to become. How can we be happy about something like that?" Ino cried._

Naruto, Sasuke, Neji and Shikamaru were all confused at this point.

"_I know better than anyone what you're going through. I know that you blame yourselves, but you shouldn't. You should be proud of who you are." Kurenai said calmly._

"_Proud? Proud! You really think we should be proud? We could explode at any minute. Wipe out this whole school in the blink of an eye. You think we should be proud of something like that?" Tenten asked._

"Wipe out the whole school? What the heck are they talking about?" Naruto whisper yelled. The other three boys shushed him and then turned their attention back to the girls and Kurenai.

"_I know you girls better than that. You couldn't hurt the innocent even if you wanted to. I know deep down you're still the same warm hearted girls that I grew to love." Kurenai said softly._

"_You're right, we could never intentionally hurt an innocent. But there's always the chance of an accident. One of us could get really angry and lose control. You don't realise how much we want to make friends, laugh at stupid things, just basically be normal. We just can't." All girls were on the verge of tears now._

"The ice queens _want _that stuff! I thought they didn't give a shit about anything." Shikamaru muttered.

"_You can, you just need a push in the right direction. That's exactly what this project is. I paired you up with the new kids for a reason, it's a fresh start. Please try to make friends, for me?" Kurenai begged._

The boys looked at each other as they waited for the girls to answer.

"_Sorry Kurenai." Sakura apologised as they made their way towards the door._

The footsteps in the room were getting closer so the boys made their way down the hall, completely forgetting about Naruto's pen. The last thing that they heard was Kurenai shouting.

"_So that's it? You're just going to walk out there and act like none of this ever happened? You're going to put that mask up again? Hide your emotions from the world?" She said._

When they were far enough away, they slowed down and began to process what they had just heard.

"What in the world were they talking about?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know but, that conversation has only made me more curious about them." Sasuke announced.

"I know what you mean, they obviously believe that they're dangerous somehow. Kurenai seems to believe it too. I don't know what's going on with those for girls, but I know that I'm going to find out." Neji said.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Shikamaru asked. "I mean it's clear that the girls are different. Maybe the things we heard are true, maybe getting involved would just cause more trouble."

"Well I don't care." Naruto told them. "I'm going to help them somehow."

"Yeah, me too." Sasuke agreed. Everyone was shocked at first, Sasuke had never willingly volunteered for anything.

"I suppose we should help." Neji said.

"What a drag." Shikamaru sighed before reluctantly agreeing. "Fine, but only because they sounded so sad earlier."

"Then it's settled." Naruto concluded. "Operation melt the ice queens' hearts is a go."


	2. Will you be my partner?

**Hey guys!**

**I've got a week off school so I'm probably going to update a few more times within the week. I'm still trying to figure out where this story is going. I've got a few ideas. Hmm...what am I forgetting? **

**Oh! I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Review, review, review. **

**Peace out **

"At least we've got a starting point. All of the girls are partnered with one of us, so we can work on them one on one." Shikamaru planned.

"Yeah, get them to open up and trust us. If what Kurenai said was true, then all of these girls have amazing personalities locked away somewhere. We just have to find them." Neji summerised.

Just then, the bell went. They walked to Maths together and were surprised to see Sakura, Ino, Tenten and Hinata in there.

_Hmm...we're in a lot of their lessons. _Sasuke thought as they made their way to the teacher.

"I'm Asuma, welcome to my class. Everyone has already picked their seats for the year, so you four will have to sit in front of those four." Asuma reluctantly said.

Unlike Kurenai, he didn't know the girl's full situation and so he honestly believed their facade. He felt sorry for the boys because he himself had witnessed the ice queens in action.

All of the boys to their seats. They were dying to start the plan, but they knew in a classroom soon to be filled with people, they would never get anywhere with these girls. They were going to be a challenge, but the boys were determined. Even Neji and Sasuke, who disliked nearly everyone they met. Something about these girls just intriged them, made them want to find out more.

As predicted, it took less than five minutes for the whole class to arrive. Asuma began teaching as soon as everyone was seated.

Naruto sneaked a glance behind him and saw that all four girls were daydreaming. Asuma seemed to notice this aswell and he decided to call one of the girls out on it.

"Hinata! What is the square root of 152881?" Asuma questioned.

He didn't expect her to get it. In fact, the question was completely off topic. Asuma was ashamed to admit this, but he purposely asked her the question just so that he could see her flustered.

Off course, this didn't happen.

Hinata didn't miss a beat and answered the question the second it had left Asuma's mouth. "391"

Everyone turned to look at her, their jaws on the floor. She just went back to daydreaming and ignoring everything and everyone around her.

_Whoa! _Naruto thought. _Even Neji couldn't have answered that question that fast! These girls are something else._

_Impossible! How on earth did she answer that fast? That girl Karin said they were smart, not fucking geniuses. _Neji ranted inside his head.

Asuma left the girls alone for the rest of the hour.

"Alright class, I want these ten questions completed for homework. Dismissed." The bell rang as he spoke the last word. Everyone pilled out, eager to get to lunch.

Naruto was the first to finish his food. There was still half an hour left until their next class.

"Why don't we find the girls now? They've got to be around here somewhere." Naruto suggested.

Sasuke swallowed his mouth full of food before replying. "That's actually not a bad idea. Ok, once we've all finished, we'll have a look for them. They can't avoid us forever, we have to work on the project."

"Maybe they don't care if they get bad grades?" Shikamaru said. "I mean, if they're going with the ice queen act, they wont really care about anything."

"They seemed close to Kurenai. Something tells me that they'll do this project just to satisfy her." Neji told them.

"I suppose you could be right." Shikamaru agreed with slightly more enthusiasm than before.

"So it's settled. Come on." Naruto yelled jumping to his feet. People around him gave him confused looks but he just ignored them and made his way outside.

The other boys quickly caught up and began looking around for the four beautiful mysteries of Konoha High.

"Over there!" Naruto said and pointed in the direction he was looking in. They all turned and saw the girls leaning against a huge tree. Tenten had her headphones on and was listening to the radio, Ino and Sakura were laying on the ground with their hands behind their heads and Hinata was listening to the ocean with her earphones in. They all had their eyes closed so they didn't see the boys approach them.

Something was blocking their light, so the girls opened their eyes to see what it was. They were suprised to see the four new boys standing in front of them. This was the first time that the girls had a proper look.

Each boy was tall with toned muscles and an effortlessly handsome face. They all appereared to want to ask the girls something. All of them were curious, I mean, noone ever approached the girls, but none of them refused to break the silence. They didn't do that, they were ice queens after all.

"Umm...Hi" Naruto started.

The girls just looked at him. Was there any point to these boys interupting the only peace they got at this school?

"We were just wondering when you wanted to start our projects. I know you're not thrilled to be working with us, but we still want a good grade on it." Naruto lied. He couldn't care less about what grade he got, but he didn't want the girls to know that.

Sakura and Tenten exchanged glances while Hinata and Ino stared the boys down.

"We're sorry that you got stuck with us, but can we at least _try_ to create a project?" Neji asked.

His patience was wearing thin. Would it kill these girls to say something?!

"Alright" Hinata finally agreed.

They boys' heads turned towards her. When she didn't say anything else, they looked at the other three, apart from Naruto who stared at her for a while longer.

Sakura sighed before taking over. "We'll work on them tomorrow after school." She asked for the boys' timetables and studied them for about ten seconds. "You're in all of our last lesson tomorrow so we wont have to meet anywhere. Drive behind us and we'll work on the projects at our house." She said before all four girls stood up.

Tenten scribbled something on a piece of paper before handing it to the boys. "Here's our phone numbers. Show these to anyone else, and I will personally be the one who orchastrates each and every one of your deaths." She threatened and then caught up with the other girls as they walked towards the school building.

"Well that was easy." Naruto stated.

"They are definately the scariest people that I have ever encountered in my entire life." Neji admitted.

"They invited us to their _house_! Noone has ever gone there! What have we gotten ourselves into? Aww man, what a drag." Shikamaru exclaimed.

"This could be good." Sasuke began. The others waited for him to explain. "We'll be in their comfort zone. They might be more willing to show the true them. We might even catch them off guard, throw something at them that they're not prepared for."

"I get it." Naruto said.

"Yeah, but we need to make sure that we don't scare them away. We've got three weeks before we don't have an excuse to see them. This plan requires time and patience, something that you, Naruto, don't have." Shikamaru reminded them.

"Hey! I can be patient when I want to be." Naruto defended.

"Just remember that tomorrow. This isn't a game, these girls' happiness is at stake." Neji warned him.

"Okay, okay I got it."

"Good because class is about to start. Come on." Sasuke said before heading back towards the building.

Their next class was PE so they all changed into their PE kits in the boys' changing room before making their way towards the sports hall. They arrived earlier than anyone else and were greeted by the teacher.

"I'm Anko" Anko told them. "We don't have a topic. I just decide what I want you runts to play for the day." She said before walking away.

The boys didn't have time to even reply so they walked over to the benches and waited for class to begin. Everyone started piling in and Naruto noticed the girls on a bench in the far corner of the room.

They were all wearing the required kit, shorts and a polo shirt, but they had made alterations to them.

All of the midthigh shorts had been shortened slightly and all four girls had left their colars open. Hinata and Ino had their shirts tucked in while Tenten and Sakura had theirs out. All four of them had bandages wrapped around their right arms, in the exact same place that the bracelets used to be.

"Do you notice that?" Neji asked the others.

"Notice what?" Naruto asked Neji.

"Of course the dope wouldn't notice it." Sasuke said.

"Notice WHAT?!" Naruto asked now really annoyed.

"They all have bandages on the same arm that they wear thoses cuff bracelets on. It couldn't just a coincidence." Neji replied.

"Meaning?" Naruto still didn't understand.

"You dope! It means that there's something on their right wrists that they don't want anyone to see." Sasuke clarified.

"Oh"

"We might be over thinking things. It could just be a big misunderstanding." Shikamaru suggested.

"Maybe" Neji agreed. "But I highly doubt it." He added.

"Ok you runts, due to it being on the school curriculum, for the next few weeks, we are going to be learning the waltz." Anko announced.

Loads of the students groaned.

"Hey!" Anko shouted to get their attention. "Do you really think that I _want _to teach you people how to dance?"

She waited for a reply but got none. "Well I don't. It's on the _curriculum_, meaning that we've got no choice. I thought that I'd get it over and done with so that we never have to do it again."

"Do you even know how to dance, Anko?" One student asked.

Anko sighed. "Yeah, when I was younger, my mam made me take dance lessons. I'm not proud of it, but there you go."

_Is there any point to these dance lessons? _Neji wondered. _It's valentines day in a few weeks. Are they planning something?._

"Anyway" Anko started, breaking the silence that had filled the sports hall. "There is an equal amount of boys and girls in this class, so that makes things easier. I wont make you runts dance today, just make sure to have a partner by the end of the lesson."

"But you're a girl." One of the boys protested.

"And?" Anko asked.

"Well...how are you going to teach _us_ how to dance?" The same boy replied.

"Simple, I asked my old dance partner to come in." With that, she walked towards the office.

Girls started to ask Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji and Sasuke to be their partners. The boys didn't want to be stuck with some obnoxious fangirl. In fact, for some reason there was only four girls that they were interested in partnering. They ignored the cries of the other girls as they walked toward the four who were still sat on a bench at the far side of the room.

"What are we doing?" Shikamaru muttered.

"Do you want to be partners with some lovesick puppy?" Sasuke asked.

"No" He replied. "What a drag."

They were almost at the girls and now they were all suddenly nervous.

"Umm...hi" Naruto began. _Woah, de ja vu. _He thought.

The girls looked up and were suprised to see the same boys as before in front of them. They would all admitt, the situation was highly amusing. Not to mention the fact that these boys looked adorable when they were nervous.

The girls simultaneously tilted their heads to the side and looked at the boys questionningly.

"Well...we wanted to know if you girls would be our partners?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, cause we thought, you're already stuck with us for something else and you wouldn't have to dance with a bunch of weirdos and it could be fun and we really, really, really don't want to dance with some obsessed fangirl who wont leave us alone and and and-." Naruto babbled on.

"Okay, I think they get it." Neji said in a warning tone that instantly shut Naruto up.

All four boys waited for the girls reactions. The only thing to have visibly changed, was the smirk these girls were now wearing.

"Let me get this straight, you four want to dance with _us_?" Sakura asked, just to clarify.

"Yeah"

The girls looked at each other.

"Fine"

"Seriously?" Naruto asked, making sure that this wasn't some kind of cruel joke.

"Yeah" Ino said. They all sighed.

"We have to partner with someone. Being with you four would attract the least amount of attention possible, considering that we're already partnered to you for another project." Tenten explained.

_Wow, I think that's the most I've ever heard these ice queens say .Well...apart from that conversation that we overheard. _Sasuke thought.

Just then, Anko called the class to attention.

"Alright, I want you all to stand with your partners." She aimed that mostly at Ino, Sakura, Hinata and Tenten.

She expected them to refuse to cooperate, like they always did when something required a partner or team that wasn't just the four of them. She was immensly suprised when all four girls walked over to the new kids and split up into four pairs.

Ino was with the boy with the pineapple ponytail, Hinata was with the blondie, Tenten was with the boy with the long hair in a lose ponytail and Sakura was with the boys who had medium spiky black hair.

_Hmm...interesting. _She thought as she studied them. _They don't seem to mind being partnered with them as much as I thought they would._

"Alright, that's it for today. See you runts next lesson."

Everyone went to the changing rooms to get out of their kits. Their last lesson was Design and Technology with Kakashi. They were focusing on resistant materials this term and, suprise suprise, the girls were also in this class.

Kakashi introduced himself to them. He told the class to make something out of any resistant materials they could find in this workshop/classroom and then he pulled out a small book and began to read it, paying no attention whatsoever to any of the students.

Shikamaru began calving a chess piece out of some wood while Naruto started hitting a piece of metal with a hammer.

Sasuke and Neji were too focused on what the girls were making. They were all carving something out of wood. Ino had made an air symbol, Hinata had made a water symbol, Tenten had made an earth symbol and Sakura had made a fire symbol.

They were all staring at what they had made with a lot of intensity.

"Why do you think that they made those symbols?" Sasuke asked Neji.

"Dunno" Neji replied. "Maybe they just like that particular element?" He suggested.

"I don't know. It looks more of a longing then a like to me." Sasuke observed.

Neji took a closer look at the girls' faces. Sure enough, they were all looking at the symbols in their hands with a look that screamed longing and...pain?

"You're right" Neji agreed. "But they also look like they're in pain. Why?" He asked more to himself than Sasuke.

Shikamaru and Naruto had stopped what they were doing at this point and they were both listening to the other boys' conversation.

"Those girls are diiferent, maybe they just have an unheathly obsession with those certain elements?" Shikamaru suggested, trying to be the logical one.

"Somehow I doubt that." Sasuke replied.

Across the room, the girls all sighed wistfully.

"It's ridiculous how much I miss my water." Hinata said.

"Yeah" Sakura agreed. "Ino and Tenten are so lucky. They are constantly surrounded by their elements."

"We're not _that _lucky. Imagine this, you're in a room surrounded by all of your favourite foods but you can't eat any of it. It drives me crazy to constantly be with my element but not allowed to wield it." Tenten sighed as she looked at the ground and then back at her symbol.

"Yeah" Ino agreed. "And if you miss them that much, just make the sprinklers turn on or start a fire."

"You're right!" They both shouted excited. Everyone in the room looked at them in surprise.

"Did the ice queens actually show some emotion?" One girl asked.

"I can't believe it." Another said in disbelief.

The four boys just continued to watch the girls as they began to whisper eagerly.

"I've got so much energy that I want to let loose!" Sakura whisper shouted.

"Me too!" Hinata agreed. "Forget about the sprinklers, I'm going for a full on flood."

"Wow, I didn't know they were _that _deprived." Ino said to Tenten.

Tenten nodded her head but she wasn't really listening.

"That's not fair! I want to start an earthquake or something." Tenten complained.

"We can't all wield our elements or someone will get suspicious. Especially considering the fact that we all made a symbol of them." Ino tried to talk sense to the three over excited girls.

"Thanks for voluteering Ino." Hinata said. "Since you feel that way, you'll sit this one out." She told her.

It was silent for about five seconds while Ino processed this. Then...she exploded.

"WHAT?! No way!" She argued. "That's so not fair."

"I think that it's my turn." Tenten told them.

"No it's my turn." Sakura diagreed.

"You're all wrong, it's my turn." Hinata said.

As they were all arguing, they didn't notice that the ground began to shake, the sprinklers had turned on, things were flying all over the place and a fire was beginning to spread in the workshop.

"W-What's happening?" One girl screamed as pandemonium broke out.

"Shit!" Tenten whispered.

"See! I told you if we all used our elements, it would cause chaos." Ino whispered back.

All of them tried to calm down so that they could get their elements to listen. After about ten seconds, the earth and wind were under control again.

Sakura couldn't stop the fire due to the fact that it would be strange if a blazing fire suddenly disappeared, and Hinata couldn't stop the spriklers because it was mandatory for them to be on in the case of a fire.

Kakashi began evacuating everyone in the room. The four girls just calmly walked out of the workshop and towards the exit of the school. Everyone had gathered at the gates and Tsunade seemed to be talking to the fire brigade.

None of them knew that the four boys were watching them from a about twenty metres away.

"Alright, everyone is allowed to finish school early today. However, this is only for today. I expect all of you here tomorrow. That is all." Tsunade announced before turning back to the fire brigade and gesturing in the direction of the fire.

As the girls walked towards their car, they made eye contact with Kurenai.

_Sorry. _Ino mouthed to her.

She just pursed her lips in reply. They all knew she wasn't really mad. Kurenai knew how hard it was for them at times.

After they were all in the car, Tenten decided to break the silence.

"Man, tell me again why we decided to skip training this morning?"

"Because we were running late." Hinata reminded her.

"I don't get it." Ino said. "I mean, we've gone a week without using our elements before, yet we can't even last one day in school?"

"It 'cause of all of the stress. At home, we're relaxed and calm. At school it's a whole different story." Sakura told them.

"I guess you're right. Either way, we need to have way more control in the future. Frankly, I'm surprised that no one saw us." Hinata said.

"And we will, that wont happen again." Ino promised.

They were all silent as they pulled off of the road and onto a trail that lead deep into the woods. After driving for about ten minutes, a huge mansion with a giant outdoor swimming pool came into view.

**I think I'll start making these chapters a bit longer. Whatcha think? Remember to review! **

**Peace out **


	3. The Mansion

**I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Hey guys!**

**So I've barely started my week off of school and already I'm bored. Lucky for you people, when I'm bored I write. **

**This chapter is slightly longer than the first two. I really dislike describing things because I feel like I just go on and on about them. I apologise in advance but alas, it's inevitable as I want my readers to see the scenes with perfect clarity. **

**I don't write for the reviews, but they would be appreciated because I want to know whether or not people like my story.**

**I think that's about it so goodbye for now.**

**Laterz**

All of the girls had inherited their families' wealth. They didn't like to brag, but they were possibly four of the richest people in the country. Granny Chiyo had the mansion built when she took the girls under her care. She thought that it would be a better location as the girls could practise their elements without any fear on being watched.

There was a big fence that marked off their land. Anything beyond that fence was their property. When the girls were older, they each took advantage of this vast space.

Hinata had made a river that connected to the pool and flowed through most of the woods. Eventhough she could create water at will, something about it constantly being there just made her feel better.

Sakura just liked the idea of there being things for her fire to destroy. She generally asked Tenten to make her targets so that they weren't so easily burned to ash.

Ino and Tenten, on the other hand, were content with what they had; which was space. Ino liked to fly through the air, free spirited while Tenten prefered to train on the ground.

They all got out of the car and headed towards the mansion. As they walked through the garden, they were greeted by Sakura's lions, Majesty and Royal, and Tenten's wolfs, Rebel and Mischief. Hinata's dolphins, Promise and Oath called to them from the pool and Ino's eagles, Pride and Courage yelled a welcome from the air.

Eventhough they could all talk to near enough every animal, they all had their favourites. For Hinata it was sea creatures, for Ino birds, for Tenten canines and for Sakura cats. All of the animals loved each of the girls, but once again they had their preferences as well.

As they walked into the mansion, their 'pets' followed them. An endless, three metre wide pool of water flowed through the whole house, giving the dolphins access to anywhere they pleased.

The huge entryway had several halls that lead off to somewhere else in the house and there way a massive staircase that lead to the girls' rooms, which had adjoining bathrooms, and a movie room as they dubbed it.

Even though they had lived there their whole lives, they still always marveled at how much this place looked like something out of a fairytale, coming complete with fancy chandelers and sparkling lights. It was a bit ironic really, considering that the girls believed they were the furthest away from a fairytale that anyone could get.

They all went up to their rooms for a while. All of their rooms were set out the same; huge room with a king sized bed and a long corner sofa that started near the ben and ended near the door, an adjoining bathroom, a walk in wardrobe that was bigger than a classroom and a large balcony outside of their two glass doors. They had all styled their bedrooms differently.

Hinata's was a royal blue with white furniture and curtains. She had a bubble chair that was big enough to fit two people in and her corner sofa was white. She had a desk with an apple laptop on it and a flat screen tv that was hanging from the wall across from her bed. Like the rest of the house (apart from the other girls' bedrooms) a small pool resided beside her bed and stretched along the outline of her room.

Tenten's rooms was dark green. She had chocolate brown furniture and curtains, including her sofa, and a massive bean bag in the corner. There were shelfs that held different weapons above her bed and a flat screen tv on the wall across from it. She had a desk with an apple laptop on it and a cushiony den beside her bed for Rebel and Michief.

Ino's room was a dark purple. She had a small, two people swing that hung from the wall in the corner of her room. It had vines up both of the ropes and a long cushion attatched to the bottom of the inside of the swing. She had black furniture and curtains, including her sofa. A flat screen tv was attatched to the wall across from her bed and an apple laptop resided on a desk in the corner that wasn't filled with something. She kept her balony doors open due to the fact that her birds prefered to be outside.

Sakura had hot pink walls and curtains and like Ino, she had a black furniture which also included the same corner sofa as the other three. She had a big pink and black chair that could only be described as a mushroom with its inside scooped out so that it beared some kind of resemblence to a sitting apperation. Also like everyone else, she had a flat screen tv across from her bed and a desk in the corner with an apple laptop resting on the top of it. She had a den for her cats and even though they had a huge library downstairs, she still had loads of shelfs with millions of books on the only corner that was bare.

All of the girls' rooms were the same but somehow different. It was ironic really, Hinata's screamed peace and tranquility, Ino's screamed wild and carefree, Tenten's screamed familiar and warm and Sakura's screamed calm and refreshing.

All of their rooms reflected their personalities in some way or reminded them who they were instead of who they pretended to be. This masion was their home and they were really anxious due to the fact that four strangers would be invading the little privacy they had tomorrow.

Why had they even invited them over? None of them knew. With those thoughts still in their heads, they headed downstairs and towards the kitchen to make dinner. It was silent for a while until Ino spoke up.

"Umm...guys? Tell me again why we invited those four new boys to our house, gave them our numbers, _and _agreed to be their partners for those damn dance lessons that Anko has announced that we'll be having." She said.

"Because we're idiots." Tenten stated.

"We did it for Kurenai." Sakura corrected. "I know we said that we weren't going to make an effort at friends, but our subconsious' must have had other ideas. We didn't want to let Kurenai down." She explained.

"Why do we even need to have dance lessons?" Hinata asked. " I mean, we all know how to dance and we're not going to that stupid valentines dance anyway."

"Apparently Kurenai is going to force us to go." Tenten told them.

They were all silent for a few minutes. No one else in the school knew about the dance apart from them and the teachers. It was supposed to be a suprise for the students but of course, these four knew Kurenai was hiding something and they had grilled her about it until she told them.

They loved the idea of a dance but it just made them more miserable. They'd sit at an empty table watching couples dancing and being reminded that love was something they could never have. How their parents had got together was a mystery to all of them; perhaps they were just better at controlling themselves. Perhaps if the girls had been trained by their parents then they might have been able to avoid this. Kurenai seemed to think that love was the solution, but that was ridiculous, wasn't it?

Either way, the girls didn't want to make their moods worse and so they were going to try to get out of this dance with all of their might.

"Look on the bright side, at least they're handsome...and hot." Ino tried to lighten the mood to no avail.

No one answered but they were all thinking the same thing.

_Yep; handsome, hot, gorgeous, tonned...this list goes on forever._ They all sighed wistfully before returning to the half prepared dinner.

_Naruto is the loud one with blonde hair and blue eyes, I think. He's adorable when he's rambling, and I bet he's an athlete with a body like that. He's so funny, and cute, and handsome, and sexy, especially with those birth marks that look a bit like whiskers. _Hinata thought.

_That one with black hair is sexy as hell. He looks really intelligent and honest as well. I bet he doesn't take shit from anyone, my kind of guy. What was his name? Oh yeah, Sasuke. _Sakura mentally noted.

_The one with the pineapple ponytail is so calm and collected. I think his name is Shikamaru. He's really tall as well! He probably plays some kind of sport with all of those tonned muscles. OO...I bet he has abs. _Ino daydreamed for a while after that.

Tenten was thinking about the boy called Neji. _He's really hot and he seems really smart as well. He's probably into sports. Hmm...I wonder if he's a good fighter._

After another ten minutes, they had everything in the oven and cooking.

"It'll take about half an hour." Hinata informed them.

"Great, just enough time to get a showered dry off." Tenten said before heading upstairs. The others, apart from Hinata, followed suit. She watched the dinner to make sure it didn't burn. She was planning on going for a late night swim anyway, so she would just get a shower afterwards.

Instead, she talked to Tenten's wolfs for a while. The other animals had gone into the forest, her dolphins taking the pool routes, but the wolfs had decided that they wanted to stay in the house tonight. Being canines, they were the most sensitive to the sad vibes coming off of the girls and had wanted to try to cheer them up.

It worked to some degree. Hinata wasn't frowning anymore and she had snuggled up to the wolfs, petting them contently. The three of them were drifting to sleep when the ping of the oven jolted them up into a standing position.

Hinata noticed that the other girls weren't downstairs yet, so she decided to set the food out herself. Once she was done, she called the other girls to tell them that dinner was ready.

Sakura and Ino appeared first in dressing gowns with towels over their heads, they were both slow showerers and had only just gotten out. Tenten came shortly afterwards with pajamas on and her hair down and dry.

"Thanks Hinata" They said as they sat down at the table.

She hummed in reply due to the fact that she had just put some food into her mouth.

Eating in relative silence, they finished in about fifteen minutes. Once again, they all went to their bedrooms. Hinata had a short swim and then got a shower. It was about eight pm and they were bored, so they went to the games room for a while.

They didn't play on any games but instead just sat down on the circle sofa that stretched across the lengh of one wall and had about one hundred different sized pebble pillows (they have really cool seats).

"Do we have to hide our animals tomorrow?" Ino asked.

"What's the point?" Tenten answered. "I mean, they most likely already think we're freaks so there's no need."

"Yeah and anyway, the animals will just worry if they're not there while we're alone with strangers." Sakura agreed.

Once again they all fell into an awkward silence.

"When did we turn into such zombies? We never used to be this miserable." Ino stated.

She was right; they were never this bad, even when they first started public school, they weren't this miserable.

"I guess it's 'cause every day we see couples, friends or even strangers talking to one another. It's get really depressing to be constantly reminded of what we can't have." Hinata answered.

"Well that needs to stop right now." Tenten said while standing up. "Come on we'll do something fun, something that we haven't done in a while."

The others stood up as well.

"Like what?" Sakura asked.

"Hmm...how about we watch a movie?" Tenten suggested.

"Yes!" Hinata yelled, excited to be doing something remotely normal. "I'll go pick one." She said before running in the direction of the movie room.

"I'd better help her." Tenten ran off after Hinata.

"Ino, will you help me get popcorn and drinks?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, come on!" Ino shouted before dragging Sakura to the kitchen.

Everyone was happy. None of them had mentioned anything even remotely associated with their issues. It was just four bestfriends, four sisters from different misters who were just chilling out and having a good time. They all curled up on one sofa and watched movie, after movie, after movie. They were so peaceful and worry free that they all fell asleep. It was like all of their troubles had just floated away.

"HINATA!"

"TENTEN!"

"WE'RE GONNA KILL YOU!"

Shouts of death threats could be heard echoing around the huge masion as Ino and Sakura chased Hinata and Tenten through each and every room in the house.

They had both just been woken up to freezing cold water being poured all over their heads. Hinata, being the one who wields water, was instantly suspected. It was only because of the fact that Tenten stood over them with a jug that they realised it was both of their doings.

"Hey!" Hinata cried. "We all agreed that we should be happy. Me and Tenten always used to wake you guys up in a morning." She tried to reason.

It was true, mosts days Tenten and Hinata woke up really early. Tenten wanted to train and Hinata either joined her or went for an early swim.

Ino and Sakura both smiled despite their want to kill the two girls who were currently running away from them. They couldn't explain it, it just felt _right_. A routine. Something that they used to do when they had less troubles. If Hinata and Tenten were making an effort to go back to how they were before, then so would Sakura and Ino. This meant that they would chase the two of them, catch the two of them, and attempt to pumel the two of them.

"We know. If you remember, we always used to chase you guys after you woke us up. We're just getting back into our old routine." Sakura reasoned.

"And isn't this about the time that we catch them?" Ino asked Sakura with a huge grin on her face.

"Why I think it is!" Sakura said with an identical grin of hers.

All of the animals had heard the commotion and were now observing the scene in front of them with excited expressions on their faces.

"HELP!" Tenten and Hinata cried while Sakura looked at Ino who nodded in return.

They were about to do something they had created years ago when Hinata and Tenten first started terrorising their mornings. Ino jumped into the air and Sakura caught her feet when they were near her shoulders. She then proceeded to throw Ino at Hinata and Tenten with as much force as she could muster.

As expected, Ino hit them dead on and they all landed in a heap on the floor. As soon as Sakura reached them, she dived onto them as well.

"OW!" Tenten shouted while trying to push them off.

Hinata on the other hand couldn't say anything because she was being squashed to death.

Tenten and Hinata finally managed to push to other off of them and the four of them then proceeded to have a wrestling match.

After about ten minutes, Hinata and Tenten got away by running up to their respective bedrooms and locking the doors behind them.

Ino and Sakura gave up and decided to do some training before school. After they were done, they headed back into the house. Hinata and Tenten still hadn't came out of their bedrooms, so they went in theirs for a while.

They all had a shower, did their hair and got dressed. As they all headed to the kitchen, they realised that they still had fifty minutes until they had to leave for school, so Hinata and Tenten made all of them a pancakes and syrup as an apology for waking them up. They used to do this all of the time in mornings because Sakura and Ino never used to forgive them until they made them some food.

After eating their breakfasts, they all headed to the door. All of them argued over whos car they were taking to school.

"It's my turn." Sakura loudly proclaimed.

"No, it's mine." Ino yelled.

"It's neither of you turns." Tenten said.

"Well it's not yours 'cause we took your car yesterday." Sakura stated.

"I was the last person to take my car." Hinata told them.

They thought about that and realised Hinata was right. With huge sighs they all grumply agreed.

"Fine, but we're taking mine tomorrow." Ino, Tenten and Sakura said at the same time.

The three girls then proceeded to glare at each other. As Hinata watched, she couldn't help but laugh. Soon all of the girls were laughing as they made their way to Hinata's car.

"Yep, just like old times. Arguing over silly things." Ino giggled.

"I'm sad. We're all in such a good mood, but that'll change by the time we get to school." Tenten frowned.

"The four of us are smart, we'll think of ways to keep our spirits high." Hinata reasurred her.

"We can mess with our classmates, scare them and stuff." Sakura suggested.

"Yeah!" Tenten yelled, a little over excited about the prospect of making her classmates scared stiff.

They all eagerly began planning what they were going to do. In the end they had so many ideas that they just decided to improvise.

There was a brief period of silence before Hinata decided to bring something up.

"The only classes those new guys don't have with us is science and self studies." She stated.

"Hmm...do you think that Tsunade did that purposely?" Sakura asked. "I mean, she knows that we're loners. Maybe she's hoping we'll befriend the new guys?" She suggested.

"Maybe" Hinata agreed.

"It could just be a coincidence." Ino said.

"It could be, but I doubt it." Sakura told her.

"Something tells me that Kurenai played some part in this." Tenten muttered.

"Regardless, we can't change anything so we might as well stop whining." Hinata told them.

"Yeah"

"You're right"

"Fine"

"Good" Hinata said. "Because we're here." She informed them.

They all grumpled in acknowledgement and began to get out of the car. They were happy as they were early for once, meaning that they could avoid all of the inevitable stares that generally awaited their arrival.

Stepping into school, they saw that no one was in the halls yet.

_Man, we must be really early. _Tenten thought.

"Is it normal for the halls to be this empty?" Ino whispered to them.

"I don't think so." Hinata whispered back.

As they walked through the deserted halls, they spotted Kurenai in her classroom. She looked up as the four girls walked in.

"Hey girls." She greeted. "You're a bit early aren't you?" She asked, clearly curious as to why the girls were roaming the school this early.

"Well" Sakura started as she glared at Tenten and Hinata. "Hinata and Tenten decided to get us all up extra early today."

"Oh?" Kurenai said while raising one eyebrow.

"Yeah, we kinda need to stop being depressed so we thought that going back to our old routine would help." Hinata explained.

"I see" Kurenai had stopped at the masion enough times to know what routine the girls were talking about. "So...did you go for the classic water over the head?" She asked Tenten and Hinata.

Hinata and Tenten liked to experiment different ways to get Ino and Sakura up. They were all amusing, but this one seemed to make Sakura and Ino a lot more angry than most others.

"Yep" Tenten replied while Hinata giggled.

She tutted, but all of them could tell she was only joking. "Well...I'm glad to hear that you four are happy." Kurenai said with a genuine smile.

They all were silent for a while until Ino noticed the time.

"Hey! Look at the time! We'd better get going." She said.

"You're right" The other three agreed.

"See you later Kurenai." They said whilst walking out of the classroom.

"Bye girls. And try to refrain from destroying the school today!" She joked as they turned to give her a wave.

"We will." Hinata agreed and shut the classroom door quietly behind her.

The halls were starting to fill up, so they made their way to their first class, English. Due to the fact that there was still ten minutes before the bell went, the girls were expecting the classroom to be empty. Instead, they saw the four new guys sitting at the back with fangirls surrounding them. No one had noticed the girls yet, so they decided to take a proper look at the boys.

Naruto was wearing an orange button up shirt, with his sleeves rolled up to show off his tonned muscles, dark blue denim skinny jeans and black combat boots. He had a silver chain around his neck with some sort of tag on it.

Sasuke had on a white shirt with a black sort sleeved open shirt over the top. He had dark grey denim skinnys and was also wearing black combat boots.

Neji had on grey shirt and a leather jacket over the top of it. He was wearing red skinny jeans and had red and white adidas gazelles on his feet. He had a silver chain hanging down from the pocket of one of his jeans.

Shikamaru had a black/greyish shirt on with a tan leather jacket over the top. He had denim skinny jeans on and blue and white low nike blazers.

They all looked really hot in the girls' opinion. The boys caught sight of the girls and silently begged them to get rid of the fangirls that were beginning to get really annoying.

All four girls sighed but decided to help due to the fact that said fangirls were in their seats.

Tenten lead the way to the back and the four girls just stood behind the fangirls, waiting for them to notice. When they didn't, Ino cleared her throat.

All of them turned around to glare at the people who had interrupted their time with the new guys, but instantly froze when they saw who it was. One girl, namely Karin, was brave enough to say something to them.

"What do you want?" She asked in a semi angry, semi terrified voice.

"Isn't it obvious?" Hinata asked in a bored tone.

When no one answered, Sakura told them in the same tone Hinata had used. "You're in our seats." She stated.

It was short and simple, but it still had the desired effect. All of the girls scattered like leafs in the wind.

Ino smirked inwardly. _Scaredy cats._

"Thanks" Naruto said. They shrugged and took their seats infront of the boys.

_I don't know if they did that for us or for them, but either way I'm still grateful. _Sasuke thought.

Just then the teacher, Iruka walked in.

"Alright class, this term we're going to be looking at a play written by Wilfred Owen called Disabled."

He handed out sheets with the poem on them to everyone in the class and told them to make some annotations about any literary techniques they could see.

This only took up all of the lesson due to most of the class talking rather than getting on with their work. Ino got bored and made the light bulbs explode. Nearly everyone screamed and ran out of the classroom.

"Next lesson I want to see an improvement in attitude to work." He called after the terrified teens.

No one turned around, ignored him. Hinata, Ino, Sakura and Tenten decided to go to their tree until the end of brake. When they got there, Ino and Hinata climbed it. Ino liked being as high as she could, and Hinata just liked climbing trees in general.

When they were alone, they all started laughing.

"Seriously Ino, were you that bored?" Hinata said while she held her stomach.

"Do I have to answer that question?" Was Ino's reply.

All of them were content for a while after that, completely unaware of the four pairs eyes that watched them from afar. The bell went too soon for them and they all sighed as they realised that it was time for _that _lesson. Science.

Science itself wasn't that bad; it was the teacher that taught it. Gai. He was known for being the most energetic person alive. Last year he had been the PE teacher, but had been forced to teach science due to him over working the kids.

Gai was a nice teacher, if not a bit over enthusiastic, but he was just an unwanted headache that the girls could do without.

They had begged to be put in a different class once they had found out who was their teacher but Tsunade had said that Gai was the only person who taught advanced science, so the girls were stuck with him.

As soon as they walked into the class, they were greeted with Gai's infamous lights show. He would wait until all of the students were in the class and then he would flicker the lights on and off while announcing into a microphone that "Might Gai is in the house!"

"I swear, when it comes to Gai, paracetamol is my bestfriend." Hinata announce as the girls took their seats.

The other three nodded their heads in agreement, definately. The four of them just daydreamed due to Gai explaining something that they already knew. He took a while as not all of the students understood what he was taking about.

After everyone finally understood, there was only half an hour left of the lesson. Gai decided to let his students out early so that they could "go spread their youthfulness around school" Everyone thought he was talking nonsense, but agreed nonetheless just to get out of class earlier.

"Uhh" Tenten grunted while rubbing his temples. "That man drives me crazy."

"Look on the bright side." Sakura tried to reason. "At least Lee's not in our class this year. Those two together could be the end of the world."

"I guess you're right." Tenten agreed.

They all went to the lunch line and bought their food before anyone else got there. They didn't buy much, just a sandwich, an apple and a drink each. Like always, they headed over to their tree and after they had eaten their food, they all just went into their own worlds again.

_Hmm...why doesn't this cafeteria sell anything with whip cream? _Hinata thought. She had an unhealthy addiction to whip cream and had a whole section of the fridge dedicated to the creamy delight.

_I'm sooo bored. I want my weapons and my wolf. _Tenten complained.

_I wonder how the animals are doing. Majesty and Royal were out early this morning so they might be back home by now. _Sakura guessed.

Ino just stared up at the sky as some birds flew by. They begged her to join them and she was finding it really difficult to stay put on the ground. She sighed wistfully. _Later._

They were all so stuck in their own thoughts that they didn't realise that the bell had already gone.

"We've got self studies next. Might as well head over to the library 'cause a doubt there will be a lot of people there; it's too good a day to stay inside." Hinata said.

"Yeah, maybe we might succeed in having some more peace and quiet." Ino thought aloud. "At least until music." She added.

When they got to the library, they were surprised to see the four new boys in there. The boys had their headphones in and they hadn't noticed the girls' entrance.

Ignoring the four of them, the girls tried to find a small corner somewhere. Luck seemed to be on their side today. They they found a small room, that was seperated from the big one with bookshelfs, and it had two big bean bags in it. Sakura and Hinata shared one while Ino and Tenten shared the other.

They were quiet for a while, content with finishing of homework that had still yet to be done. After a while, they had finished, so they all put their headphones in and listened to their individual music.

Tenten was the first to notice the small ache in her right wrist. She signalled the other girls to turn their music off for a while.

"Hey, do your right wrists hurt?" She asked them.

"Now that you mention it, yeah a bit." Ino said.

"Doesn't that generally mean that we're developing?" Hinata asked. "I mean, it's only happened twice, but both times we've gotten stronger in some way or other."

"Hmm...how much stronger can we get?" Sakura asked.

All of the others shrugged. It was a topic they were uncomfortable with. This ache meant something, something they didn't know themselves. They hated not knowing. It drove them crazy.

"Let's not worry about it." Tenten said. "It's inevitable. We might as well just forget about it entirely."

"Forget about it?" Ino asked. "If I remember rightly, this little ache turned into excruxiating pain over the course of one week." She reminded them.

"Yeah, but like Tenten said, it's going to happen no matter what we do so we might as well quit all of the worrying whilst we're ahead." Hinata reasoned.

Ino thought for a while but seemed to give in to the logic as she reluctantly agreed.

They all put their headphones on and decided to drop the subject entirely. The bell went too soon in their opinion, as before they knew it they were heading towards their last lesson, music. They had this lesson with Tsunade.

Eventhough she's the headmaster, she still taught a few lessons, music being one of them. Tsunade was a cool teacher, but get on her bad side and you're literally dead. The boys were heading towards that lesson as well.

**Not a very good ending but I'll update soon.**

**That part about whip cream might have seemed random but I'm thinking about dedicating a lot of my time writing some fluff around it.**

**I've got a few ideas for how this story will turn out. Let me know what you think about it so far.**

**I might be starting another story soon, but I think I'll wait until I've nearly finished this one. I'm thinking something along the lines of summer camp or something like that. **

**Remember to review.**

**Laterz**


	4. Working on the project, and dinner?

**I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Bonjour people!**

**So I was surprisingly more busy in my week off school than I thought I would be. First day back and I've already had enough.**

**My updates will probably be less now that I'm back at school, but I'll try to add a new chapter at least once a week.**

**Again, I don't write for the reviews, but they would be appreciated because I want to know whether or not people like my story.**

**I think that's about it so goodbye for now.**

**Laterz**

* * *

"Come on Shikamaru! Hurry up or we're gonna be late!" Naruto yelled as he tried to make Shikamaru walk faster.

"This is such a drag." Shikamaru complained but sped up anyway.

They reached the classroom just in time and then looked around. There was a big stage towards the end of the room with some instruments and microphones on it. All of the desks angled towards it so that people could see even if they were doing their work.

Tsunade noticed the boys as they walked in.

"Hello again" She smiled before continuing. "Today is the final performance so that I can determine the grades of my students for the term. We're a little behind and we'll be starting a new topic next lesson."

She paused to make sure they had understood her and then began again. "For today, you four will just have to watch."

"Okay" Naruto said while pulling the other towards some empty desks.

"Alright, who wants to go first?" Tsunade asked.

Karin and her two friends immediately volunteered. They put a Titanium karaoke version on the laptop and basically killed it. They weren't that bad at singing, it was just the fact that none of them could hit the high notes. Everytime one came, it sounded like a cat being run over - not very pleasant.

The class clapped, but only because of the glares that Tsunade gave them when they didn't. It continued like that; performance, clap, performance, clap Etc. Etc.

"Is that everyone?" Tsunade asked when the current person had finished performing.

Hinata, Sakura, Tenten and Ino kept quiet. It wasn't that they were scared of performing, because they were actually really good, it was the fact that people see the real them when they perform. _That _was a scary thing because it made them feel really vulnerable.

Tsunade didn't seem to notice and she was about to call the class to an early finish but then Karin spoke out.

"Ino, Sakura, Tenten and Hinata haven't performed yet." She informed Tsunade.

Everyone turned to look at the girls, who were currently thinking of the many ways they could kill Karin.

_Do they have stage fright? _Sasuke asked himself.

_I wonder if they're any good. _Naruto thought.

_Are they embarrased? _Neji mentally questioned.

_What a drag. _Shikamaru sighed.

It took the four girls a while to actually get up from their seats. Hinata went to the keyboard and set up a microphone close enough so that she could sing and play at the same time. Tenten did the same with the guitar whilst Sakura and Ino just had a microphone. All four of them were stood up.

It was silent for a while and everyone held there breaths as Hinata and Tenten began the introduction.

**Hinata and Tenten do the 'ahahahahahs' at the start.**

**Sakura**

_You trembled like you'd seen a ghost  
And I gave in _

**Everyone looked in awe. Sasuke especially.**

_I lack the things you need the most, you said where have you been_

_You wasted all that sweetness to run and hide  
I wonder why  
I remind you of the days you poured your heart into  
But you never tried  
_

**Hinata and Tenten**

_I've fallen from grace  
Took a blow to my face  
I've loved and I've lost  
I've loved and I've lost_

**Naruto and Neji could only think one thing: wow.**

**All of them**

Explosions...on the day you wake up  
Needing somebody and you've learned  
It's okay to be afraid

**Sakura**

_But it will never be the same  
_

**Ino**

_It will never be the same_

You left my soul bleeding in the dark  
So you could be king

**Shikamaru had actually decided to pay attention for once.**

_The rules you set are still untold to me and I lost my faith in everything  
The nights you could cope, your intentions were gold  
But the mountains will shake  
I need to know I can still make  
_

**All of them**_  
_

_Explosions...on the day you wake up  
Needing somebody and you've learned  
It's okay to be afraid  
But it will never be the same  
_

**Hinata**_  
And as the floods move in_

**Naruto held his breath.**

_And your body starts to sink  
I was the last thing on your mind  
I know you better than you think  
_

**Tenten**

_Cause it's simple darling, I gave you a warning  
Now everything you own is falling from the sky in pieces  
So watch them fall with you, in slow motion  
I pray that you will find peace of mind  
And I'll find you another time  
_

**Hinata**

_I'll love you, another time_

**All of them**

Explosions...on the day you wake up  
Needing somebody and you've learned  
It's okay to be afraid  
But it will never be the same

"That was..." Sasuke began.

"AMAZING!" Naruto yelled. The girls looked his way but didn't show any emotion apart from the faint blush that was barely noticable on Hinata's cheeks.

"Thanks"

"Well, that's the end of the lesson, you all may go." She said before turning herself to the huge pile of paperwork that she had brought from the office. She sighed. _The joys of being headteacher._

After everyone got out of school, Sakura, Hinata and Tenten headed towards their car. Ino stayed behind to give the boys general directions before catching up with the others.

"It doesn't sound _that _complicated." Naruto mussed.

"No, but we should still try and follow them incase we get lost." Neji said.

They all got into the car and tried to find the girls. It didn't take long, their car was the most expensive one in the car park.

"That's a nice car." Shikamaru commented with an appreciative whistle.

"Doesn't really surprise me. We were told these girls are rich." Sasuke told him.

"Still...nice car."

Said car was patently waiting for the guys to find them. When they finally had, Hinata pulled the car out of the car park and sped up as soon as she was on the main road.

Everyone in the car hummed in approval as the wind swep through their hair. There was just something about speed that made the four of them happy.

"Hmm...these girls are quite the speed demons." Neji commented.

Sasuke grunted something before speeding up himself to catch up with the girls.

They seemed to make it too the woods in record time.

"So the rumours were true. They _do _live in the woods!" Naruto shouted.

"Shh! We're in a car Naruto. We can all hear you without the shouting." Shikamaru told him. He was the unlucky one who had to sit to Naruto today.

"Ooookkkkaaaaayyyyy" Naruto emphasised every letter of the word in an obnoxious way. "Look!" He shouted again, completely forgetting that he had just agreed to stop yelling. "That's not a mansion, that's a palace!"

For once no one told his off as they were all too busy staring at the huge house. They all got out of the car still in awe at the sight before them but they didn't move away from it.

The girls waited, but after a while they got impatient.

"Are you guys coming or not?" Ino asked.

That seemed to snap them out of it. They followed the girls through the garden and into the mansion.

"Woah"

"Amazing"

"Beautiful"

"..."

The girls inwardly smirked at their reactions. Yes, they had a _very _nice house.

A splash diverted everyone's attention towards the indoor 'river'. Hinata's dolphins stared at the newcomers in wonder. When the guys noticed the dolphins they were once again amazed.

_Dolphins as pets! COOL! _Naruto thought.

Tenten made a loud whistling sound with two of her fingers and after a moment, the sound of paws could be heard from outside.

The wolfs and lions came running in while the eagles flew through the doors.

_There's more? _Neji asked himself.

"Cool!" Naruto shouted not able to contain himself any longer.

Tenten introduced her wolfs first.

"The wolfs are mine. This is Mischief and Rebel."

"Promise and Oath are the dolphins. They're _mine_." Hinata told them.

"This is Pride and Courage." Ino said gestering towards the eagles.

"And Majesty and Royal." Sakura finished as she pointed out the lions.

_Who are these people? _Majesty asked the girls.

They answered the question by introducing the boys.

"Now we're done with the introductions, I think we should start our projects." Hinata said.

Everyone else muttered an agreement of some sort and followed the girls up the stairs.

They all split up once they got to the top, going to their respective bedrooms.

When Naruto saw Hinata's room, he instantly got excited.

"Woah! Your room is so cool!" He exclaimed.

"Hmm" Hinata answered not really paying attention as she got her laptop from her desk.

She opened the balcony doors to let some fresh air in.

Naruto noticed the water slide at the end of Hinata's balcony that lead down to the pool below.

"You have a waterslide!"

"Yes and you aren't using it." She said as she shut the balcony curtains, hiding said object away from Naruto's view.

"Why?" Naruto whinned.

"Because we have a project to do." Hinata answered and then sat in her bubble chair with her laptop.

She expected Naruto to sit on the floor or the sofa. What she didn't expect was for him to climb into the chair and sit next to her.

"Umm...what are you doing?" She asked.

"I can't do the project if I can't see the laptop." He told her.

She thought for a minute. "Your logic makes no sense."

"Well I don't care. I'm not moving so get used to it."

She sighed. There was always the option of moving away, but she somehow knew that he would follow her regardless of where she sat. "Whatever"

Naruto grinned, happy that he had won and made himself comfortable by snuggling up close to Hinata and casually putting his arm behind her.

Hinata noticed this. "You do realise that this chair is really big. You don't have to sit so close."

"I know"

Hinata huffed in annoyance. This boy was unbelievable. Trying to ignore him, she powered up her laptop and open up a word document.

As she was about to type, she realised that they hadn't decided what their project was going to be about.

"Well" Hinata said.

"Well what?" Naruto asked.

"Well, what are we going to do our project about? We need to decide on a topic." She explained.

Naruto thought about this for a while. "How about love and hate?" He suggested.

She thought about this. _Love and hate. Interesting. They can definately be compared against one another._ Hinata looked at the boy next to her. _Maybe he's not as dense as I originally thought._

"Love and hate. Hmm...I like it." She concluded.

"Great!"

"Don't get too excited." Hinata told him. "We still have to present our idea in a creative way, and actually explain why we chose it."

"Easy!" Naruto shouted, not letting anything put a damper on his mood.

_His enthusiasm is infectious. I'm starting to actually like the idea of working with him. _Hinata thought.

They continued working on the project for about an hour before Hinata realised that Naruto had been silent for a while.

_He's oddly quiet. _

She turned away from her laptop to look at him and realised that he was asleep.

"Well that explains that." She said as she tried getting out of the chair.

Naruto had other ideas though, because as soon as she shifted he wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"Are you kidding me!" Hinata yelled and attempted to get out of Naruto's grasp.

He must have been really strong considering the fact Hinata herself had amazing strength.

"Great" She sighed but stopped trying after she realised that it was futile.

She sat there for a few minutes thinking. It was oddly comforting being in Naruto's arms.

_He's so warm. _Hinata was aware that she had snuggled closer to him but didn't make any effort to move. _Might as well get comfy. It doesn't look like I'll be moving any time soon._

She listened to the rhythm of Naruto's heartbeat for a while. It calmed her and made her tired. It wasn't long until she drifted to sleep as well.

Naruto's eyes opened and he glanced at the clock that was conveniently right across from him.

_7:30pm. I've been asleep for about two hours. Funny, I don't remember falling asleep._

It was then that he noticed the blue haired beauty that was asleep in his arms.

_Wonder how that happened. _He thought. _She looks happier when she's asleep. Like all of her problems have dissolved away._

Naruto didn't want to wake her but as soon as he moved, she stirred.

Her lavender eyes opened and met azure blue ones. She stayed in a sleep-induced daze for a few minutes before finally snapping out of it.

"What time is it?" She asked him as they both sat up.

"Just after half 7" He answered.

Hinata yawned and streched before getting out of the chair and heading to her bathroom. She splash cold water on her face to fully wake herself up and fixed her hair so that she didn't look like she had just been asleep.

When she came back into the room, Naruto was still in the chair.

"You can use my bathroom if you want." She told him.

He took her up on her offer. While Naruto was in the bathroom put her laptop on charge.

"Your bathroom is as amazing as the rest of your house!" He exclaimed.

"Thanks, I guess." She said as she made her way towards the door.

Naruto followed her. "Where are we going?" He asked.

"To the kitchen. I want to make a start on dinner."

At the word dinner Naruto instantly sped up.

When they made it to the kitchen, they found Ino and Shikamaru already in there.

"You didn't have to start dinner without us." Hinata told Ino as she began to help her.

"And yet I'm assuming that's exactly what _you _were planning on doing?" Ino accused.

Hinata grinned sheepishy. "Fine you got me."

Naruto sat down next to Shikamaru and watched how the girls interacted with one another.

"Where are Tenten and Sakura?" Hinata asked.

"Dunno" Ino replied. "Probably still in their rooms trying to decide what they're doing their project on."

Hinata thought about how stubborn those two could be.

"That could take a while then."

"Yeah, we got lucky." Ino started, refering to herself and Shikamaru. "We went with one of the first ideas we had."

"Same" Hinata told her.

"Really?" Ino asked genuinly surprised. "You're as stubborn as them you know. I was convinced that it'd take at least a hundred suggestions before you agreed on one."

Hinata folded her arms, clearly offended. "That's a bit of an exaggeration. I'm not _that _bad." She defended.

Ino snorted but made no effort to reply.

The two boys raised their eyebrows at each other. Did they act like this all of the time?

Dinner didn't take that long to prepare and all they had to do was wait for it to cook.

While they were waiting, Naruto decided to ask a few questions.

"Why is there a mini river running through the whole house?"

"So that the dolphins can go where ever they want." Ino answered.

"Why do you have dolphins as pets?"

"Because I like them." Hinata said.

"How many rooms does this house have?"

"Never counted them."

"Do you all have waterslides leading to the pool?"

"No, just me."

"Why?"

"God you ask too many questions." Ino said before Hinata had a chance to answer.

"I'm sorry?"

"SEE! That right there. A question!" The ping of the oven stopped Ino from going into a full blown rant.

Naruto was glad. Something told him that he did not want to be subjected to any of these girls' anger.

"I'm assuming you're staying for dinner?" Hinata asked them.

"Really? We can!" Naruto said getting excited again.

Hinata sighed but nodded.

"Cool, what're we having?"

"Chicken chow mein and prawn crackers." She answered before heading back into the kitchen.

While Naruto was going on and on about how he loved chinese food, Shikamaru was deep in thought.

_They didn't have to invite us to stay for dinner but they did anyway. They're so different from how they are at school. These girls are kind, honest and actually really cool._

He thought back to when he and Ino were in her bedroom.

FLASHBACK

_Ino grabbed her notepad and sat on the edge of her bed. Shikamaru plopped himself down infront of her._

"_So...what are we doing this project about." He asked after a few minutes of silence._

"_I don't know." Ino answered. "I haven't really put much thought into it." _

"_Well how about we list things that contrast and pick the pair that we like the best?" Shikamaru suggested._

_Ino shrugged. "Might as well."_

"_Okay...how about truth and lies?" Shikamaru started._

_Ino made some sort of noise to indicate that she didn't like that idea._

"_Bullies and victims?" He asked. "Black and white? Light and dark? People and-"_

"_Wait!" Ino shouted effectively cutting him off._

"_What?" He asked._

"_Light and dark. That could work." She explained._

_Shikamaru thought for a moment. It had only been a suggestion, but when he thought about it, it did seem like a really got idea. _

"_Okay, let's go with that then." He agreed._

_They talked for hours about the project. After a while, Ino noticed the time._

"_It's almost 7, I have to make a start on dinner." She said as she got up._

"_Alright" Shikamaru also got up and followed her out of the door._

_They went down to the kitchen and Shikamaru sat at the breakfast bar while Ino got out all of her ingredients._

"_You're really smart." Ino said nochalantly as she started chopping some vegetables._

"_Thanks" Shikamaru was astonished that she had willingly said something nice to him. _

_Actually, now that he thought about it, she had seemed less and less like the girl he'd met at school as he spent more time with her._

_They were silent; lost in their own thoughts and after a while, Naruto and Hinata came down._

END FLASHBACK.

"SAKURA! TENTEN! DINNER'S READY!" Ino shouted as she and Hinata set the table.

First they brought out the chow mein and crackers, and then they brought out a huge chocolate cake.

"Wow!" Naruto exclaimed. "Do you guys have meals like this everyday?"

"We cook almost everyday if that's what you're asking. We generally only have small desserts though. Tenten and Hinata made this cake this morning as an apology." Ino told him.

"Apology for what?" Shikamaru asked.

Ino didn't have chance to reply because Sakura and Sasuke had just entered the kitchen.

"You two didn't have to do dinner on yourselves. Tenten and I could have helped." Sakura said but then changed her mind. "In fact, it should have been Tenten and Hinata who made this, seeing as they owe us an apology."

"See this cake?" Hinata asked. "That is our apology. Drop it, move on, stop living in the past."

"What did they do?" Sasuke asked, genuinly curious.

"Nothing" Hinata answered quickly.

"Doesn't sound like nothing to me." Naruto muttered but shut up when he saw the glare that Hinata was giving him.

Tenten and Neji then chose that time to walk into the room.

"Thanks for making dinner. It took a while to finally decide on an idea." She said as she grabbed some glasses out of the cupboard.

Hinata and Ino shrugged and helped Tenten carry the glasses while Sakura got them drinks.

"What do you guys want to drink?" She asked.

Neji asked for water, Sasuke coke and Shikamaru and Naruto wanted orange juice. They watched as the girls get everything ready.

Sasuke looked closely at the girls. _They move in unison, like they're in complete sync with each other._

_Each of them knows what the other is about to do. It's like they've been doing this they're whole life. _Neji observed.

_It's easy to tell that they all love each other. A bond like that is hard to get. _Naruto thought.

Shikamaru was having some doubts. _They keep becoming even more of a mystery. I'm starting to think that we aren't going to be able to solve them. _

They were all lost in their thoughts as the girls sat down at the table. It didn't take long to finish the food, and afterwards Hinata and Sakura took the dishes away.

Tenten went into the kitchen. The boys assumed that she was going to bring plates for the cake. In a sense she did. Instead of actually bringing them, she threw the plates to Ino, who catched them with ease. If that wasn't surprising enough, after that, she threw a knife.

"You guys are so cool!" Naruto told them.

"So we've been told." Tenten said.

Ino cut the cake into eight pieces. Four of them were slightly bigger than the other four. She put the bigger onces on plates first and handed them to the boys.

They thanked her and started to eat the slice.

"This is delicious!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Hmm...thanks" Hinata and Tenten said while the girls started to eat as well.

After dinner, it was quarter past nine. The boys decided that it was time for them to leave, so they said their goodbyes and made their way to their car.

"That was interesting." Sasuke said as they got into the car.

"Very" Neji agreed.

"They're so cool." Naruto told them. "I mean, they have awesome pets and an awesome house and they all act _so _different to how they are at school."

"Yeah, it's like they dropped the facade entirely, and I don't think they really care that we saw the real them." Shikamaru added.

Naruto was really listening anymore. He put his elbow on the windw and rested his head on it. He was thinking back to how good Hinata felt in his arms.

_Is it weird to think that she fit perfectly into my arms? She looked so small and fragile and adorable. When she woke up, she didn't even ask why we were like that. She just acted normal, like it didn't bother her._ He would have happily continued his thoughts, but Sasuke interrupted his mental ramblings.

"We're here" He announced.

Everyone got out and shouted their goodbyes. They all lived next to each other so it wasn't a long walk from the car.

When Sasuke got in, he dropped his keys on the counter.

"What a night"

He got dressed for bed and tried to get to sleep. He thought out what he and Sakura were doing for their project.

_Dreams and reality. I'm not exactly surprised with Sakura suggesting that. I bet she thinks everything she wants in life is a dream. _

He wanted to prove her wrong. The first step was gaining her friendship. He thought of ways to do that while he was falling asleep.

* * *

**It's not as long as the last one but it seemed like a good place to end. **

**Some NaruHina and I suppose slight ShikaIno. Don't worry, I will include SasuSaku and NejiTen at some point.**

**Lemme know what you think about it so far.**

**Au revoir. ;)**


	5. Late, again

**I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**Hola people!**

**Sorry it took me so long to update. I know I've used the school excuse before, but it seems like everytime I turn around there's some kind of test waiting for me. **

**I've gotten high marks on all of my previous tests, so everyone is expecting me to get high marks on this one aswell. I do NOT do well under pressure, so I'm basically staying up all night to revise.**

**Ah, the disadvantages of being a nerd.**

**This is a random question just because I feel like it:**

**If you could have any superpower, what would it be?**

**Again, I'm really sorry about the slow updates. Hopefully I'll find more time for them soon.**

**Now that I think I've said everything, onward with the story.**

* * *

Morning seemed to come to quickly for Sasuke. After getting ready for school, he went out of his house. Neji was waiting outside in his car.

"I thought it was Shikamaru's turn to drive." Sasuke said as he got in next to Neji.

"It was but he phoned me up complaining about what a drag it was and could I drive instead." Neji explained.

"How am I not surprised?" Sasuke muttered as he spotted Naruto jogging towards the car.

"Hey guys!" He shouted.

"It's not normal for someone to be this energetic in the morning." Sasuke told him.

"Who ever said I was normal?" Naruto asked.

Neji sighed at the blonde's antics.

Shikamaru chose that time to make an appearance.

He yawned as he got in the car.

"Yo Shikamaru" Naruto greeted.

"Hi"

"Took you long enough." Neji said as he started the car.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Come on Neji. Pick up the pace or we'll be late!" Naruto shouted from the back seat.

"I agree with the dope." Sasuke said while covering his ears.

"Yeah, he agrees with the- HEY!" Naurto yelled once the insult registered.

"Took him long enough." Shikamaru muttered.

"Will you guys shut up!" Neji said and the car became eerily quiet. "Thank you"

They arrived at school not long after. D & T was their first lesson so they headed over to the workshop. Almost everyone was there, apart from their teacher.

After about ten minutes of waiting, Naruto got impatient.

"How long is this teacher going to take!" He yelled. Everyone in the class heard him and a girl who was sitting on a table near them decided to reply.

"Kakashi is always late." She stated.

Naruto thought about this. "He wasn't late last lesson." He argued.

"That's because he'd taught in this classroom the lesson before." The same girl answered.

"I guess that makes sense." Naruto admitted before shutting up.

Kakashi arrived five minutes later.

"YOU'RE LATE!" The class shouted.

"Yeah...sorry about that." He apologised half heartly before taking out his book and settling into the seat behind his desk.

"Aren't you supposed to tell us what to do?" Naruto asked him.

Kakashi peered over the top of his book. "Right" He began. "Finish what you started last time."

And that was all he said.

Naruto was beyond annoyed. "First he shows up late, then he neglects us all for a stupid book. What kind of teacher is he?" He ranted, unaware that Kakashi had heard him.

"The kind of teacher that can give you detention for the rest of the year if he so wishes. Now...what was that you were saying?" Kakashi asked.

"Nothing" Naruto said quickly.

He kept his mouth shut after that, but he would occasionally glance at the girls, Hinata in particular. She looking fairly amused by his behaviour and everytime she caught him staring, she would just smirk and look away.

"Aww, looks like someone has a crush on you, Hinata." Ino teased when she spotted Naruto looking at Hinata for what seemed like the millionth time.

"You can talk. I've seen the way Shikamaru looks at you." Hinata retorted.

"Pfttt" Ino made an incoherent sound and crossed her arms.

Tenten and Sakura laughed loudly and Ino just glared. "Don't you two start, I bet the two of you were cosy cosy with Sasuke and Neji yesterday." She said.

Sakura didn't say anything but Tenten scoffed.

"Please!" She exclaimed. "I could barely refrain from hitting him, he was that argumentative. Every idea I had, he shot down." She fumed.

"And vise versa I assume?" Hinata asked, joining the conversation again.

Tenten blushed. "So I said no to a few of his ideas, so what?"

"Were they good ideas?" Sakura asked.

"Some, but mine were better." Tenten stated.

"How did you decide in the end?" Ino questioned.

Tenten smirked. "Simple, I just added my wolfs to the debate."

The others laughed at this.

"Tenten, that's not very fair." Sakura scolded.

"Oh please, you would have done the same if you were in my situation." Tenten defended.

Sakura thought about this and eventually allowed a small "Maybe" to slip from her lips.

Their light banter continued until the end of the lesson. The four of them exited the classroom last and went to their tree for a while.

"What lesson have we got next?" Ino asked.

"English" Tenten answered before slipping her earphones on.

They all sat in relative silence for a while. The bell went to soon for all of them. They groaned as they got up from their comfortable positions under the tree.

As they made their way to English, they looked at their surroundings.

The halls were practically empty, indicating that the girls were late.

_Oh well._ Hinata thought. _What else is new?_ She asked herself.

_Those bitches try to steal our seats again and they're dead. _Tenten silently ranted.

They reached their class moments later. To their relief, Karin and her 'Screw Crew' were on the other side of the classroom. Before they could head sit down, Iruka cleared his throat.

"And why are you four late?" He asked in a no nonsense tone.

Simultaneously, they all shrugged and continued to make their way towards their seats. Iruka scowled at their turned backs. Would it kill them speak once in a while?

"Alright, as I was saying before that interruption, I've decided to scrap the poem what we were doing. Instead, you're going to produce the speech that you need for Art or Drama."

"We've already finished ours." One boy stated.

"So now you work on improving it." Iruka told them. "You've got three weeks on this project; there's no need to rush it. I will be grading you on your speech, while Kurenai will grade you on your creativity. Get started." With that he sat at his desk and began marking some books.

After about five minutes of daydreaming, Tenten felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Neji looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"So...are we going to start working on our project now?" He asked.

Tenten looked and saw that Sakura, Hinata and Ino were still daydreaming, but she decided to agree anyway.

"Whatever"

That wasn't exactly the responce Neji was looking for, but it was a starting point.

Tenten switched places with Sasuke so that she was sitting next to Neji. She turned in her chair so that she was facing him.

"Alright, where shall we start?" Neji asked her.

"Hmm...we might as well list what the similarities and differences between good and bad."

"Okay" Neji agreed with her and then got a sheet of paper.

On one side it said good, in the middle it said both and at the end it said bad.

They took it in turns writting things down. They were so engrosed in what they were doing, they didn't notice they had five minutes till the end of the lesson until Iruka told everyone to pack away.

They looked at their sheet with satisfied faces. They had gotten a fairly long list, and it would be easy to write an effective comparison piece now that the hard part was out of the way.

Tenten pocketed the sheet and walked out the classroom with Ino, Hinata and Sakura. They glanced over their shoulders as they were walking out of the classroom and saw Naruto, Neji, Sasuke and Shikamaru staring at them.

Sakura saw Sasuke wink at her just before they were out of sight. She huffed. _Did he just wink at me? The nerve of that guy. Although...he is really sweet at times and not to mention the fact that he's good eye candy. _She was interrupted by Tenten's voice before she could go into a full on Sasuke fantasy.

"Ino? What did you bring for dinner?" Tenten asked. It was Ino's turn to make their lunches today, and Tenten wanted to find out what it was as soon as possible. She was _starving._

"Sushi" Ino replied, grinning. She knew that sushi was Tenten's favourite meal and knew what kind of reaction she was going to get.

"Yes!" Tenten yelled and then proceeded to pull the other three towards their tree.

"Ino?" Hinata asked in an expectant tone.

Ino sighed, knowing exactly what Hinata was talking about. "Yes Hinata, I got you a can of whip cream, and I got sakura a bag of marshmallows."

Sakura and Hinata grinned at their 'Blood Sister'. Like Hinata, Sakura also had an addiction towards a certain sweet.

They both ate their dinner quickly, and then leaned back in contentment as they ate their treats. Tenten and Ino looked at them with raised eyebrows.

"I still don't understand how they can love dessert more than us." Ino muttered.

"Whip cream isn't a dessert on its own." Hinata corrected without opening her eyes.

"Yeah, and neither are marshmallows." Sakura agreed.

Ino grumpled before climbing the tree and laying down on a branch that was about 3 metres off the ground.

"One of these days you're gonna fall." Tenten told her as she made herself comfortable on the ground. She rested her hands behind her head and closed her eyes.

"Yeah, like the wind would actually let me hit the ground." Ino retorted.

Tenten grunted in reply and looked at her phone before closing her eyes again._ We still have half an hour till the end of dinner. Might as well get some shut eye. _

The next thing any of the girls heard was the bell going off. They groaned as they sat up.

They really didn't feel like going to maths and having to deal with Asuma. Fair enough, he was a good teacher, but he was constantly singling them out. So they daydreamed a lot in class...what did it matter when the girls were already smarter than him?

None of them could believe that Kurenai was his girlfriend. Grumpy, patronising, and constantly smoking a cigarette; what a catch. Kurenai had to obviously see something in him, so most of the time they tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.

After all, it was_ them _who didn't listen, _them _who turned up late nearly every lesson, and _them _who always got 'special treatment'.

Special treatment...yeah right. No one knew about Tsunade's constant nagging at them to improve their behaviour, or Kurenai's constant attempts to help them get friends.

If they could improve, they would. They couldn't though. It wasn't a case of wanting to; they _had _to keep up the ice queen facade. People could get seriously injured if they got too close to any of the four girls.

Kurenai was always nagging them about how love could make everything better. Yeah right. They don't live in some kind of fairy tale. In fact, it was more like a living nightmare.

They all thought about when they spent with the boys. It was like all of their worries dissolved. How they longed for that kind of feeling constantly. How they longed to be normal and have friends, boyfriends, and just people who genuinly cared.

_That would be nice. _Sakura thought as they stepped through the classroom door.

_We're late. How original. _Tenten sighed. She hated being predictable. She hated the fact that she had to act a certain way infront of everyone. _Being an ice queen is too hard._

Hinata heard Tenten's sigh. She gave her a small smile. She knew how Tenten felt; they all did.

Asuma cleared his throat. _Here we go again. _Hinata thought.

"And why are you four late?"

"Because we are." Ino answered and then followed the other girls to their seats.

"Hmm...now that class can begin, I want everyone to solve these questions. They're hard; suck it up. I want them done by the end of class." Asuma finished talking and went out the fire exit, lighting a cig as he went.

"Man, does that teacher ever stop smoking?" A loud voice asked. The one and only, Naruto.

"Dope. Why do you ask such stupid questions?" Sasuke asked in reply.

"Why do you give such stupid answers?" Naruto retorted.

Before the two of them could go into a full blown argument, Neji interrupted them.

"As much as I find this" He gestured to the scene that Sasuke and Naruto were creating. "Amusing, there are questions waiting on that board that aren't going to answer themselves." He then gestured to the board to emphasise his point.

Naruto and Sasuke shut up after that. The girls had listened to their conversation/argument and had to agree with Neji; it was very amusing.

_They argue just like siblings._Hinata thought with a smirk before continuing to answer the questions.

It didn't take any of the girls long to finish. They sat back in their seats and put their earphones in.

Ino was bored. Even listening to music wasn't helping, and there was still twenty minutes of class left. She thought about what she could do.

_Hmm...make the air temperature drop? No, too easy. Make a mini tornado? No, too conspicious. Make Asuma fall off his chair? Bingo. _

She sat up in her chair and focused on Asuma. She needed to make everyone, even him, believe that it was an accident. _I could brake one of the chair legs. Simple, but it would be effective. _

Being as discrete as possible, she directed the wind towards back chair legs. Gentle applying pressure, she waited. Sure enough, a crack was soon heard, followed by the sound of Asuma hitting the floor.

The class was silent for a minute before they erupted.

"OMG! Asuma just fell off his chair!" Someone shouted.

"And he dropped his cigarette aswell!" Another added.

Ino had to place her hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. Hinata, Sakura and Tenten looked at each other before turning their gaze towards Ino.

"You did that, didn't you?" Tenten whispered.

None of them needed an answer. It was obvious by the look on Ino's face that she was the culprit. They tried to look serious, but eventually they all cracked.

"You could have been slightly more subtle." Sakura whispered but couldn't help the giggle that escaped.

"I was bored." Ino defended. "And anyway, air is the most subtle element there is."

The other three just glared at her. By this time, Asuma had recovered and he had decided to dismiss class early.

Ino walked out of class with a bounce in her step. The other three just looked at her in disbelief.

"What" She asked once she noticed the looks that they were giving her.

"We're in school, Ino." Sakura hissed. "We can't have people seeing you all jolly and suddenly thinking that we're no longer ice queens." She explained.

Ino calmed down at once; they were right of course. She knew how important the facade was.

They all sighed and had one thought simultaneously. _I wish I could just be me._

It was a simple wish, something that most people took for granted. However, most people couldn't destory an entire country with the flick of their hands.

Due to them being lost in thought, none of them realised that they had reached Kurenai's classroom.

They were greeted with a warm smile when they walked in. Most likely because they were on time for once. After greeting Kurenai with a nod, they made their way to their seats. Kurenai stopped Hinata as she went by.

"I'm coming over tonight." She whispered so that no one else could hear. "Just thought I'd tell you so that you can make sure you're in. Tell the others."

Hinata gave one swift nod and then went to her seat. She got out her phone and texted Tenten, Sakura and Ino. They all read the message and nodded once to Kurenai.

She acknowledged their nods with a small one of her own. Everyone was here by now, so she started class.

"Alright, everyone is to work with their partners on their projects. Don't rush; you still have two and a half weeks. If you need any help, just ask. Get started."

Instead of neglecting the class like Asuma and Kakashi did, Kurenai walked around the classroom. She looked at people's ideas and suggested ways to improve them. The only people that she didn't go to were Tenten, Hinata, Sakura, Ino and their partners.

She wanted to be surprised by what they manage to come up with. She wanted to know whether or not the girls would learn to work with the boys, and eventually become friends.

As she looked at them, her hope grew. They actually talked to their partners in civilised ways, not answering in one word sentences.

_This could actually work. _She thought before directing her attention to the pair that had just raised their hands for help.

Naruto looked at the girl infront of him.

_She's so smart, and pretty, and hot, and cool. I REALLY want to kiss her right now. Hmm...I wonder what she'd do if I did. Probably throw me over the other side of the classroom. _Naruto looked at Hinata wearily. _Yeah, I'd better not chance it, yet._

"So have you got any ideas on how we're presenting this?" He asked Hinata.

She thought for a moment. "We could build two models, kind of like solar systems, with hate and love each being a sun." She suggested.

Naruto considered this idea. "Alright" He agreed. "And we could put one thing in place of each planet that represents or associates with love or hate."

Hinata nodded at that and they began to list what materials they would need to build their models.

Ino and Shikamaru weren't getting anywhere.

"Come on lazy ass, wake up so that we can work on our project." Ino whinned as she shook Shikamaru.

The latter groaned but raised his head regardless. "It's too much effort."

"I don't care" Was all Ino said in reply.

She got out the work they did at Ino's house yesterday and started spreading the sheets over the table.

"How are we going to present this?" She asked.

Shikamaru sighed. "How about we do the presentation in the dark, but use torches to show the light aspect?"

"That's a good idea. We need to think of ways to be more creative though, build off that idea."

Shikamaru hummed in reply and the both of them got to work.

Because they were so engrosed in what they were doing, they failed to notice that class was almost over.

"Alright, enough for today. Once your desk is tidy, you may leave." Kurenai told the class.

Sakura, Tenten, Ino and Hinata took their time, knowing that Kurenai would want to speak to them after class.

"The four of you both know that I'm coming over today." She began once everyone was out of the room.

They all just nodded in reply.

"Alright. Just make sure you're in." She told them.

They exited after that and made their way towards their car.

Hinata was absentmindly rubbing her wrist. Sakura noticed this.

"Your wrist starting to hurt even more?" She asked Hinata.

Hinata nodded.

"Yeah, mine too." Sakura told her as they reached their car.

They were all silent on the drive home, and it took longer than usual. Finally, after what seemed like forever, they arrived at home.

* * *

**Again, I'm really sorry about the slow update. I'm making a promise to myself to improve that.**

**Another shorty. I'm seriously trying to make them longer.**

**Reviews to me are like chocolate. Since I'm supposed to be cutting down on chocolate, they are the next best thing. Give me a little treat by reviewing.**

**Adios mi amigos. ;)**


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